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(No Model.) 1 2 SheetsSheet 1. E. J. HOUGHTON & W. WHITE.

AUTOMATIC REGULATOR. No. 488,121. Patented'Dec. 13, 1892.

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

E. J. HOUGHTON -& W. WHITE. AUTOMATIC REGULATOR.

No. 488,121. Patented 1160.13, 1892.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD J. HOUGHTON AND WILLIAM WHITE, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

AUTOMATIC REGULATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 488,121, dated December 13, 1892.

Application filed March 26, 1892.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EDWARD JOHN HOUGHTON, residing at Camden, Underhill Road Dulwich, in the county of Surrey, and WILLIAM WHITE, residing at 58 Bread Street, in the city of London, England, citizens of England, have invented new and useful Apparatus for Automatically Regulating Electric Currents, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to apparatus which automatically introduces into an electric circuit more or less resistance according as the elect-ro-motive force of the current is greater or less, and thus serves to regulate the current in the circuit.

Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings is a vertical section, partly in elevation; and Fig. 2 is a plan of regulating apparatus according to this invention.

S is a solenoid-coil, forming part of the circuit to which the regulator is applied, or it may be in a shunt to the circuit taking a portion of the current.

K is an iron core, pressed down by a spring contained within a tube, the lower end of which is screwed through a nut It, so that by screwing the tube more or less downward the force ofthe spring locan be adjusted. On arod R, extending up from the core K, is fixed a head r, to which is screwed the innermost convolutions of a wire V, bent into the form of a spiral or volute, having a number of convolutions, the outermost convolution being attached at o to a bed-plate P, of copper or other'good conducting metal, on which some of the convolutions lie. The wire V is of metalsuch as German silverwhich is of low conductivity, offering considerable resistance to passage of an electric current. The conductors being attached at WV and W, the current passes through the solenoid-coil S and also through the wire volute V. When the electromotive force in the circuit and in the coil S is low, the core K, not being strongly attracted upward, is forced down by the spring and mostor all of the convolutions of the wire V then lie upon the bed-plate P, so that the current passes mostly through the plate, meeting with very little resistance; but when the electromotive force increases the core K is at- $erial No. 426,626. (No model.)

tracted upward, lifting a number of the convolutions of V up from the plate, and the current having then to pass through all these convolutions meets with considerable resistance, by which it is regulated.

The convolutions of V, instead of being such as to lie on a flat bedplate, may take a conical form, resting on a cone 0, as shown diagrammatically in Fig. 3, or the cone C may be dispensed with, as shown diagrammatically in Fig. 4, all the eonvolutions being in contact with each other, except such as are separated by the lifting of the innermost convolution.

Having thus described the nature of our invention and the best means we know for carrying the same into practical effect, we claim- 1. An apparatus for automatically regulating electric currents, consisting of a solenoidcoil S, a core K movable therein, a spiral resisting-wire V, forming part of an electric circuit and having a greater or less number of its convolutions short-circuited, and a rod R, connecting the core with the innermost convolution of the spiral resisting-wire, substantially as described.

2. The combination, in an apparatus for automatically regulating electric currents, of a solenoid-coil S, a core K, movable therein, a spiral resisting-wire V, forming part of an electric circuit and having a greater or less number .of its convolutions'short-circuited,'a connection between the core and the innermost convolution of the spiral wire, and a spring is, acting to press the core outward from the solenoid-coil, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, this 18th day of February, A. D. 1892.

EDWARD J. HOUGHTON. WILLIAM WHITE. Witnesses OLIVER IMRAY, Chartered Patent Agent, 28 Southampton Buildings, London, W. C. V J NO. P. M. MILLARD, Cleric to Messrs. Abel dc Imray, Consulting Engineers and Patent Agents, 28 Soulhampton Buildings, London, W. C. 

